Closure device for dispensing pills and capsules from bottles



July 1962 cs. T. JOHANNESEN, SR 3,045,875

CLOSURE DEVICE FOR DISPENSING PILLS AND CAPSULES FROM BOTTLES Filed July 17, 1958 2 Sheets-Sheet l INVENTOR.

ATTO RNEV GEORGE T. JOHANNESEN, SR.

July 1962 G. T. JOHANNESEN, SR 3,045,875

CLOSURE DEVICE FOR DISPENSING PILLS AND CAPSULES FROM BOTTLES Filed July 17, 1958 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR. Gt'OkGE 2' JO/IA/V/VESEA/ 81?.

%M (5 Cam- United States atnt (thine 3,045,875 CLOSURE DEVICE FOR DISPENSING PILLS AND CAPSULES FROM BOTTLES George T. Johannesen, Sr., Kalamazoo, Mich., assignol' to The Upjohn Company, Kalamazoo, Mich., a corporation of Michigan Filed July 17, 1958, Ser. No. 749,086 4 Claims. (Cl. 222-364) This invention relates to a closure device for dispensing pills and capsules from containers and it relates particularly to a removable cap structure having a closable dispensing passageway therethrough.

It is, and long has been, common practice to sell many types of articles, such as quantities of pills and capsules, in various types of containers, such as bottles, Where the articles are intended to be used on a one-at-a-time basis. Further, where such articles are intended for human consumption, particularly in the food or pharmaceutical field, great efforts are expended to maintain sterile conditions in the manufacture of such articles. Thus, it is desirable to permit the removal of the articles from their container with a reasonable degree of convenience on the part of the user and yet maintain at least a reasonable approximation of sterile conditions within the container.

Further, many articles, and again referring particularly but not exclusively to pills and capsules, are packaged under predetermined conditions of humidity. Whatever the particular conditions, the use of a container closure which permits the entry of atmospheric air into the container during storage periods thereof will tend to destroy the moisture condition under which the articles were packaged. Therefore, it is particularly desirable to provide a dispensing device which provides a tight seal when in its closed position capable of preventing moisture trans fer therethrough.

Many suggestions have been made in the past for providing one-at-a-time dispensers and many of them use devices which in either the closed position or the dispensing position maintain the opening through which the article is dispensed in a substantially obstructed condition. However, insofar as I am aware, none of these devices are arranged to effect even an approximately close seal between the movable cover of the device and the part defining the dispensing opening when the dispenser is in its closed condition. Hence, it is neither possible to maintain even approximately sterile conditions in the container nor is it possible to prevent moisture transfer into or out of said container.

Accordingly, the objects of the invention are:

(1) To provide a device for effecting one-at-a-time dispensin g of articles from a container.

(2) To provide a device, as aforesaid, which when closed will seal the container tightly against communica' tion between its interior and the surrounding atmosphere.

(3) To provide a dispensing device, as aforesaid, which will operate easily and without necessity for special instructions to the user.

(4) To provide a dispensing device, as aforesaid, which can be made economically and by suitable mass production techniques, such as plastic injection molding.

(5) To provide closure structure including a dispensing device for a container, as aforesaid, which at no time will occupy a position exposing an unobstructed opening through said container of a size greater than a minor fraction of that of the article being dispensed and exposing even such opening only for extremely brief moments during its normal operation.

(6) To provide a closure structure, as aforesaid, which will be of extreme simplicity and accordingly be capable both of economic original manufacture and of long and reliable use.

(7) To provide closure structure, as aforesaid, whereby an opening is provided in said container through which articles are dispensed, and an article ejecting device is arranged within said opening so that it will rotate easily during normal operation thereof, but will seal tightly against the walls defining said opening when in closed position.

Further objects and purposes of the invention will be apparent to persons acquainted with devices of this general type upon reading the following specification and inspection of the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIGURE 1 is a side elevational view of the upper end of a container fitted with the closure device embodying the invention.

FIGURE 2 is a sectional view taken along the line II-II of FIGURE 1.

FIGURE 3 is a sectional view taken on the line III- III of FIGURE 2.

FIGURE 4 is a top plan view of the structure shown in FIGURE 1.

FIGURE 5 is a sectional view taken along the line -V of FIGURE 2.

FIGURE 6 is a diagrammatic illustration showing the relative positioning of some of the parts.

FIGURE 7 is a central cross-sectional view of an alternate closure device.

FIGURE 8 is an enlarged fragment of FIGURE 3, parts of which are slightly exaggerated to illustrate the operation of the cover.

FIGURE 9 is an enlarged fragment of FIGURE 3 illustrating a different position of operation of the cover.

FIGURE 10 is an enlarged fragment of FIGURE 3 illustrating a further operating position of the cover.

FIGURE 11 is a diagrammatic view similar to that shown in FIGURE 6 and disclosing a modified concept of operation.

For convenience in description, the terms upper, lower, and derivatives thereof will have reference to the structure embodying the invention when in its upright position as appearing in FIGURES l, 2 and 3. The terms inner, outer, and derivatives thereof will have reference to the geometric center of the closure device and parts associated therewith.

General Description In general, the invention consists of a closure device for a container, said device having a circular passageway therethrough in which a substantially hemispherical shell or cover is rotatably mounted. The upper edges of the walls defining said passageway curve inwardly slightly to overlay an annular portion of the hemispherical cover immediately adjacent to the wall of said opening. Advantageously this inwardly curving portion has the shape of a truncated sphere the radius of which is essentially the same as that of the hemispherical shell. Said cover has a pair of coaxial trunnions, the common axis of which is displaced slightly toward one edge of the shell from the center of the hemispherical surface. Said trunnions are received into suitable coaxial and diametrically positioned bearings on the wall of said passageway near the upper end thereof so that said cover is slidably engageable with the upper curved edge of said passageway. Thus, the hemispherical surface and the truncated sphere while nearly concentric, are offset with respect to each other sufiiciently that the outer edge surface of the cover will tend to bind and thereby create a seal with the inwardly curving wall of said passageway when said gate is rotated into its closed position. Where desired, the cover may be made of diameter slightly larger than the passageway in which it is placed in order to augment the reliability of the seal.

Detailed Construction The closure device 10 (FIGURES 1, 2 and 3), herein selected to illustrate the invention, is comprised of a body member 11 having a shank 12 receivable into the throat 16 in the neck 17 of a substantially conventional container 18, such as a glass or plastic bottle. The body member 11 also has a flanged top 13 integral with, and of greater diameter than, the shank 12 for engaging the lip 19 on the neck 17 of the container 18 to control the insertion and permit removal of said device 10 from the throat 16. Said body member 11 has a preferably coaxial passageway 24 through both the shank 12 and the flanged top 13, the upper portion 23 of said passageway being cylindrical. A dispensing cover 22 is pivotally supported within said cylindrical portion 23 near its upper end. Said closure device 10 may be fabricated from any conventional and suitable material, such as a plastic, by conventional procedures including injection molding.

The shank 12 of the body member 11 (FIGURE 3) has an outer surface 27 which converges toward both axial end-s thereof. This eases insertion of the shank into the throat 16 of the container 18 and tends to hold the shank in said throat, particularly where the throat diverges slightly toward the interior of the container, as shown in FIGURE 2. The upper end 28 of the passageway 24 (FIGURES 2 and 3) converges slightly to form an annular segment of a sphere having a diameter approximately equal to the diameter of the cylindrical portion 23.

A pair of lengthwise grooves 31 and 32 (FIGURE 2) are provided in the diametrically opposite sides of the wall defining the passageway 24 and extend upwardly along its cylindrical portion 23 into, but not through, the curved segment 28 at the upper end of said passageway. The groove 31, which is preferably identical with the groove 32, has a pair of integral opposing projections 33 and 34 (FIGURE which extend from the side walls of the groove 3-1 adjacent to the upper end 36 thereof. The projections 33 and 34 cooperate with the upper end 36 of said groove 31 to form a circular recess 37 which serves as a bearing seat for the cover trunnions. In a similar manner, projections 38 and 39 (FIGURE 3) extend from the side walls of the groove 32 and cooperate with the upper end thereof to provide a bearing recess 41. The bearing recesses 37 and 41 are coaxial and their common axis is coincident with a diameter of the passageway.

The cover '22 (FIGURES 2 and 3) is formed as a shell having hemispherical inner and outer surfaces 46 and 47, respectively, which are preferably concentric and spaced from each other the minimum distance permissible consistent with the strength desired. In one preferred embodiment of the invention, the outer surface 47 of the cover 22 has a normal diameter slightly larger than the inside diameter of the cylindrical portion 23 of the passageway 24. Said cover 22 has a pair of integral coaxial trunnions 48 and 49 which are disposed upon opposite sides of the outer surface 47 so that their common axis lies within the plane defined by the edge 51 of the cover 22 but is offset slightly n'ghtwardly (as appearing in FIGURE 3) from a true diameter of said cover 22. The trunnions 48 and 49 are rotatably receivable into the circular bearing recesses 37 and 41, respectively, for the purpose of pivotally supporting the cover 22 within the cylindrical portion of the passageway 24 in the bottom member 11. The recesses 37 and 41 are located high enough on the wall of the passageway 24 that the outer surface 47 of the cover 22 will snugly embrace the inner surface of the annular segment 28 when the cover 22 is in its closed position, as appearing in FIGURES 2 and 3.

More specifically, and referring to FIGURE 6, the line 47a represents the outer surface 47 of the cover 22 which surface is concentric with a point 101. The line 28a represents the surface 28 of the body member 11 above de scribed, which surface is a truncated sphere also concentric with the point 101. The axis of the bearings 37 and 41 is coincident with a diameter of the passageway 24 through the point 101. The construction line 102 represents a diametric plane of the hemisphere defined by the surface 47 which plane is substantially coincident, although not necessarily exactly so, with the outer end of the passageway to be closed by the cover 22. The construction line 103 is perpendicular to the plane indicated by the line 102.

If the cover trunnions are placed with respect to the cover 22 in the diametric plane indicated by the line 102 and to the right (as appearing in FIGURE 6) of the point 101, namely, at point 104, then when the parts are assembled both the trunnions and the rightward walls of the bearing recesses will be distorted sufliciently so as to exert considerable pressure between all portions of the surface 47 leftwardly of the plane through the vertical axis 103 (which plane is parallel with the axes of the trunnions) and the adjacent surface 28. By inspection of FIGURE 6, it will be apparent that as the cover 22 is rotated in a counterclockwise direction about a trunnion centered at 104 the leftward end of the surface 47 will first move downwardly in a direction perpendicular to the plane 102 as indicated by the arrow 105. This will rapidly ease the frictional binding which exists between the surface 47 and the surface 28 and thereby render the device easy to open even though it is firmly sealed when in closed position.

Referring to FIGURE 11, which shows a modification, the common axis of the trunnions 48 and 49, which axis is indicated by the point 106, is offset from the center of surface 47, which center is indicated at 101, in a direction parallel with the plane 102 and further 011- set from said plane in a direction away from the surface 47. The point 107 is on the surface 47 at the end of a radial line 107a extending from the common trunnion axis 106 through the center 101 of said surface. The initial downward movement of the point 107, while it is above the lower end 108 of the line 28a, will be in a direction indicated by the arrow 10? and on a radius (namely, the radius between the point 107 and the point 106) which is greater than the radius of curvature of the line 28a (namely, the distance from the point 107 to the center point 101). Thus, the point 107 will first press more tightly against the surface 28 of the body member 11 (indicated by line 28a) before it is released and tends to fall away from surface 28. The point 107 falls away from surface 28 when the radial line 107a is substantially parallel with a radius extending from the center 101 to the wall of portion 23. Thus, the cover tends to have a snap action holding the same closed but due to the resiliency of the material of which both the cover and the trunnions are made (or of which the body member 11 and, hence, the walls of the bearing recesses are made), the cover will snap into a closed position, will tend to be held in such position but will be readily openable out of such position When and as desired.

In considering FIGURES 6, and ll it is to be understood that the displacement of the trunnion to points 104 and 106 has been exaggerated for the purpose of illustrating the mode of operation involved and that in actual usage only a slight displacement from the center point toward points 104 and 106 is needed to effectuate the desired sealing action. Thus, in a device having a cover 22 which is, for example, one-half inch in diameter, and with the other part being proportionate thereto as illustrated in the drawings, a displacement of the order of a few, as 2 to 5, hundredths of an inch will sufiice.

FIGURES 8, 9 and 10 disclose fragments of FIGURE 3 in which the axis of the trunnion 48 on the cover 22 appears at point 104, as shown diagrammatically in FIG- URE 6. The point 104 is offset from the center 101 of the hemispherical surface 47 toward the lever 52. Inasmuch as the amount x of the offset may be as small as two hundredths of an inch, the showing of said offset has been exaggerated in these figures for illustrative purposes. The letter y indicates the distance between the center point 104 of the trunnion 48 and the rightward edge (FIG- URE 1-0) of the spehrical surface 47 adjacent the lever 52. The distance 2 is the radius of the spherical surface 47 and is equal to x plus y.

The three FIGURES 8, 9 and 10 illustrate a cover 22 in a sequence of three difierent positions of operation including the fully open, undistorted position of FIGURE 8, the partially open position of FIGURE 9 and the closed distorted position of FIGURE 10. In FIGURE 10, the broken line 28b indicates (in an exaggerated amount) where the resilient surface 28 would be located if not engaged by the outer surface 47 on the relatively rigid cover 22. In FIGURE 9, the distortion of surface 28 is less than in FIGURE 10 and there is no distortion of 28 in FIGURE 8. Under normal circumstances, the pressure between the cover 22 and left wall 28, when the cover 22 is in its closed position of FIGURE 10, will result in some distortion of either the trunnions 48 and 49 or the walls of the recesses 37 and 41, or both. When such distortion occurs, pressure may then be increased between the cover 22 and the Wall segment 28 adjacent the lever 52.

As the cover 22 moves from its FIGURE 8 position toward the FIGURE 10 position, the pressure steadily increases between the cover 22 and wall 28, particularly on the left side, as viewed in FIGURE 10. This creates the sealing effect and also tends to hold the cover in the closed position.

As shown in FIGURES 3 and 4, the cover 22 has an integral, manually engageable lever, or handle, 52 which extends radially from the outer surface 47 of said cover 22 adjacent to the edge 51 thereof. The flanged top 13 of the body member 11 has in its upper surface 54 a pair of radial slots 53 and 53a on diametrically opposite sides of the opening 24. The lever 52 is receivable into said slot 53 (FIGURE 3) when the cover 22 is in its closed position, and will be Within the slot 53a, as shown in broken lines at 52a, when the cover is in its open position indicated at 22a. The outer end of the lever 52 is preferably about even with the peripheral edge of the top 13 and may be serrated to facilitate manual engagement thereof.

The hemispherical cover 22 (FIGURES 2 and 3) has a cavity 57 defined by the inner hemispherical surface 46 thereof. The cavity 57 is preferably of such size that it receives slightly more than one half of an article, such as a spherical capsule 58, disposed within the container 18, while the cylindrical portion 23 of the passageway 24 is preferably only slightly larger than the maximum diameter of the articles held in the container 18. Thus, only one article at a time can enter the cylindrical portion 23, and move into the cavity 57.

In all forms of the device, it is preferably formed from a somewhat resilient material, such as polyethylene, and where the cover 22 is of diameter equal to or larger than the diameter of the opening 23, at least one of the shell and/or the body member 11 is necessarily made from a resilient material. Advantageously, the shell can be made of polyethylene and the cover 22 of polystyrene.

Operation As indicated above, the body member 11 and cover 22 of the closure device 10* are separately fabricated and thereafter assembled. Such assembly is accomplished easily by urging the cover 22 upwardly through the passageway 24 in the body member 11 with the lever 52 extending upwardly. It is essential that the trunnions 48 and 49 are aligned with the grooves 31 and 32, respectively, so that the cavity 57 faces that side (the right side in FIGURE 3) of the passageway 24 which is occupied by the handl 52 when the cover is closed. The cover 22 is urged upwardly until the trunnions 48 and 49 pass the projections 33, 34, 38 and 39 in the grooves 31 and 32 and are received into the bearing recesses 37 and 41, respectively. The closure device 10 is now ready for mounting upon a conventional container 18 simply by inserting the shank 12 into the throat 16 of such container.

In order to close the cover 22 (FIGURE 3) of the device 10, the lever 52 is moved into the slot 53 in the flanged top '13 of the body member 11, whereby the cavity 57 opens toward the interior of the container 18 and is in loading position, as shown in FIGURE 10.

When it is desired to dispense a capsule 58 from the container 18, said container is inverted so that one of said capsules can enter the cavity 57. While the container is in a substantially inverted position, the lever 52 is manually engaged and the cover 22 is thereby pivoted around the axis of the trunnions 48 and 49 into the FIG- URE 8 position so that the lever 53 is substantially received into the slot 53a on the opposite side of the flanged top 13, as shown in broken lines at 22a in FIGURE 3. During such movement, the cover 22 (FIGURE 3) is rotated through the FIGURE 9 position and through an angle which is normally in excess of about and normally slightly less than from its loading position into its discharge position 22a (FIGURES 3 and 8). Thus, the capsule 58 within the cavity 57 is moved from a position within the container to a position where it will drop out of the cavity 57. Thus, as above explained in more detail, the offset condition of the trunnion axis will cause the wedging condition between the cover 22 and the cylindrical portion 23 to become increasingly relieved, subject to the snap action above described, as the cover is rotated from a loading or closed position 22 (FIGURE 3) toward its fully open or discharge position 22a. Normally, and preferably, the closure device 10 is designed so that such wedging is completely ended by the time that the cover member 22 has moved approximately 45 from its closed position toward its open position.

After a capsule 58 has been dispensed from the cavity 57, the cover 22 may be immediately returned to its closed position, whereupon another capsule 58 is immediately moved by gravity into the cavity 57, providing the container is still in a substantially inverted position. Accordingly, the dispensing of the next capsule can be effected immediately simply by again rotating the cover 22 into its broken line position 22a of FIGURE 3 or solid line position of FIGURE 8, after which it may again be returned to its solid line position (FIGURE 10) closing the container. This procedure can be repeated until each capsule 58 has been dispensed, one at a time, from the container 18.

Under normal conditions of operation, it is unneces sary for the passageway 24 to be uncovered for more than a few seconds while a capsule is being dispensed. Even then the size of the uncovered portion will never be more than about half of the total cross section of said passageway 24.

When the contents of a container 18 have been completely dispensed, the closure device 10 can be easily pulled out of such container and inserted into another full container; thereafter, such closure device can be used for dispensing the contents of the second container as well as any following containers. Because of the very simple construction in the closure device 10 it can be easily sterilized between usages. If desirable, the cover 22 can be removed from the body member 11 by pushing it down through the body member past the projections in the grooves 31 and 32.

Under some conditions it may be desirable to provide a closure device 62 which is connected more securely to its a container than is the closure device 10 of FIGURE 1 and,

as shown in FIGURE 7, the closure device of the invention is readily adaptable thereto. In such case, the neck 64 of the container 63 may be provided with threads 65 on the outer surface thereof which are engageable with the cooperating threads 67 on the inner surface of the skirt 66, which is integral with the body member 11 and embraces the outer surface of the neck 64. The closure device 62 has a shank 68 which is slidably receivable into the throat 69 of the container 63 and has a coaxial passageway 70 into the upper end of which the cover 71 is 7 received and held in a manner substantially as set forth hereinabove with respect to the cover 22 (FIGURE 3).

Although particular preferred embodiments of the invention have been disclosed above in detail for illustrative purposes, it will be understood that variations or modifications of such disclosure, which lie within the scope of the appended claims, are fully contemplated.

What is claimed is:

1. A closure device for an article container having a mouth, comprising: a body member engageable with said container around said mouth, said body member having a passageway therethrough communicating with said mouth and having a portion of circular cross section near the outer end thereof, said portion of said passageway having an annular segment near the outer end thereof; a hemispherical shell having an annular edge disposed within and snugly embraceable by said annular segment, at least one of said shell and body member being formed of distortable resilient material and said shell having an outside normal diameter slightly larger than the diameter of said circular portion; pivot means on said shell and the wall of said circular portion rotatably supporting said shell for movement through an angle in excess of 120 about an axis extending between substantially diametrically opposite points on the edge of said shell and substantially diametrically opposite points in said circular portion, said axis being slightly offset from the center of said shell in a direction parallel with the plane defined by the edge of the shell, and in an amount approximately equal to the difference between said diameters of the shell and the circular portion, whereby movement of said shell into a closed position effects a sealing engagement between the annular edge of said shell and the annular segment of said circular portion; and means on said shell for effecting said pivotal movement thereof.

2. The structure of claim 1 wherein said shell has a concave cavity into which an article is receivable for move ment with said shell from a position confined Within said container to a position of release from said container.

3. The structure of claim 1 wherein said pivot means permitting relative rotation between said shell and the body member comprises: means providing a pair of coaxial, diametrically opposed bearing recesses in the walls defining said circular portion, the common axis of said recesses being substantially within said plane, and a pair of trunnions secured to said shell and rotatably receivable within said bearing recesses, said trunnions having a common axis offset with respect to the center of said shell and disposed within said plane.

4. The structure of claim 1 wherein said pivot means permitting relative rotation between said shell and the body member comprises: means providing a pair of coaxial, diametrically opposed bearing recesses in the walls defining said circular portion and a pair of coaxial trunnions integral with said shell and rotatably receivable within said bearing recesses, the common axis of said trunnions being offset with respect to the center of said shell in a direction parallel with said plane, and further olfset from said plane in a direction away from said shell whereby, when said trunnions are received in said bearing recesses, said circular portion will resist rotation of said shell out of the closed position until the shell has been moved so that a radial line extending from and perpendicular to the common axis of said trunnions through the center of said shell is substantially parallel with a radius of said circular portion, after which the resilience of said shell and said body member will tend to assist further rotation of said shell away from the closed position.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,891,817 Hildebrand Dec. 20,1932 2,134,180 Felber Oct. 25, 1938 2,127,465 Church Aug. 16, 1938 2,140,587 Kalbitzer Dec. 20, 1938 2,204,821 Priddy June 18, 1940 2,286,916 Loomis June 16, 1942 2,475,381 Erickson July 5, 1949 2,533,449 Fraser Dec. 12, 1950 2,683,554 Mulhauser July 13, 1954 2,708,535 Dettelbach May 17, 1955 FOREIGN PATENTS 252,510 Switzerland Oct. 1, 1948 421,581 Great Britain Dec. 20, 1934 502,610 Great Britain Mar. 20, 1939 

